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Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says

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Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says

#151

Post by blackfawn »

Stratoscope wrote: post #148

> The FCC also notified WJLX on Thursday morning that the station would have to go off the air because of the theft. While WJLX still has its FM transmitter and tower, it is not allowed to operate its FM transmitter while the AM station is off the air. W.T.F.? I've been following this story, and as a ham operator I am usually a big fan of the FCC. But I don't understand why the loss of the station's AM tower should r…

Their FM station is a "translator" which listens to their AM station and rebroadcasts it. Translators are a secondary service that must only rebroadcast their primary service.

Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says

#152

Post by Brybry »

blackfawn wrote: post #151
Stratoscope wrote: post #148

> The FCC also notified WJLX on Thursday morning that the station would have to go off the air because of the theft. While WJLX still has its FM transmitter and tower, it is not allowed to operate its FM transmitter while the AM station is off the air. W.T.F.? I've been following this story, and as a ham operator I am usually a big fan of the FCC. But I don't understand why the loss of the station's AM tower should r…

Their FM station is a "translator" which listens to their AM station and rebroadcasts it. Translators are a secondary service that must only rebroadcast their primary service.

To add to this with sources:

"Loss of primary station's signal. The translator must be set up to go off the air if the main station's signal is lost." [1] and cites regulations [2][3]

[1] https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/fm-translators-and-boosters

[2] https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-C...

[3] https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-C...

Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says

#153

Post by [deleted] »

diggan wrote: post #149
arp242 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tower seems to be in a relatively remote field, and the tower seems pretty small (judging from [1]). Cut it down and in to pieces with a few battery-powered grinders, put in a van or two (or a small truck), and off you go. I suspect this may be easier than it appears at first sight. [1]: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/08/us/stolen-transmitter-rad...

How realistic is the theory in the article regarding it being picked up by a helicopter? I don't know how much a tower like that could weight, nor how much a typical helicopter that a private individual has access to could lift. But if they'd be able to collect a significant value after cutting it down into pieces somewhere else and sell the pieces, maybe it makes sense (from the thief's perspective) to helicopter aw…

[deleted]

Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says

#154

Post by graemep »

sh79 wrote: post #145

The image of another tower used in the article is pretty confusing. This https://apnews.com/article/radio-station-tower-stolen-am-fm-... > one apparently includes the real one, which I think makes the theft appear more within the realms of possibility.

One of my earliest memories of something in the newspapers was, as a teenager, finding out a picture in The Guardian was of any entirely different conflict, more than a decade earlier, albeit in the same country.

The media did not really care much about accuracy then, and its even worse now.

Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says

#156

Post by Bluestrike2 »

diggan wrote: post #149
arp242 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tower seems to be in a relatively remote field, and the tower seems pretty small (judging from [1]). Cut it down and in to pieces with a few battery-powered grinders, put in a van or two (or a small truck), and off you go. I suspect this may be easier than it appears at first sight. [1]: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/08/us/stolen-transmitter-rad...

How realistic is the theory in the article regarding it being picked up by a helicopter? I don't know how much a tower like that could weight, nor how much a typical helicopter that a private individual has access to could lift. But if they'd be able to collect a significant value after cutting it down into pieces somewhere else and sell the pieces, maybe it makes sense (from the thief's perspective) to helicopter aw…

It's a small tower, but I'd think it'd probably still weighs a couple thousand pounds. I could be way off there and it's smaller than it looks in the CNN photo, but you're likely looking at using a construction helicopter and needing experienced people capable of rigging the tower and actually lifting it without killing everybody.

My guess is that they just dropped it and chopped it up. A helicopter seems ridiculously over-the-top and cartoonish for a couple hundred bucks in scrap metal value you'd gain from the theft. You'd waste more than that in just fuel for the helicopter.

Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says

#157

Post by Angostura »

Brybry wrote: post #152
blackfawn wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their FM station is a "translator" which listens to their AM station and rebroadcasts it. Translators are a secondary service that must only rebroadcast their primary service.

To add to this with sources: "Loss of primary station's signal. The translator must be set up to go off the air if the main station's signal is lost." [1] and cites regulations [2][3] [1] https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/fm-translators-and-boosters [2] https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-C... [3] https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-C...

Shame they can't set up 1 1-Watt transmitter on a poll to meet the regulations and then sent a direct feed to to the FM transmitter

Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says

#158

Post by Brian_K_White »

diggan wrote: post #149
arp242 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tower seems to be in a relatively remote field, and the tower seems pretty small (judging from [1]). Cut it down and in to pieces with a few battery-powered grinders, put in a van or two (or a small truck), and off you go. I suspect this may be easier than it appears at first sight. [1]: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/08/us/stolen-transmitter-rad...

How realistic is the theory in the article regarding it being picked up by a helicopter? I don't know how much a tower like that could weight, nor how much a typical helicopter that a private individual has access to could lift. But if they'd be able to collect a significant value after cutting it down into pieces somewhere else and sell the pieces, maybe it makes sense (from the thief's perspective) to helicopter aw…

I don't think the helicopter was meant to be a real suggestion, just relaying an example of some of the calls and emails they've received. I think it was meant to sound silly but just show that people are interested, including people with no real idea.

All in all, the physical theft looks almost trivial to me going by the pictures of the actual site.

What mystifies me is how it went unnoticed at the electrical level, that a landscaper had to tell them.

The location is remote and unmanned, but the station must know instantly when anything at all changes even slightly about the transmitter or antenna.

Not because of webcams or anything like that either.

The connections from the signal source to the transmitter and from the transmitter to the antenna are not just one-way and blind. Any change at the load directly and instantly affects the source.

I mean obviously I must be wrong about that somewhere along the way.

I actually had a ham licence but back in the 80s and I was only 11 or so. So my understanding is both educated and not.

Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says

#159

Post by flaminHotSpeedo »

sh79 wrote: post #145

The image of another tower used in the article is pretty confusing. This https://apnews.com/article/radio-station-tower-stolen-am-fm-... > one apparently includes the real one, which I think makes the theft appear more within the realms of possibility.

The caption is infuriating:

> "A different radio tower, which has presumably not been stolen"

Re: Someone stole a Jasper radio station’s 200-foot tower, owner says

#160

Post by jackfoxy »

graemep wrote: post #154
sh79 wrote: post #145

The image of another tower used in the article is pretty confusing. This https://apnews.com/article/radio-station-tower-stolen-am-fm-... > one apparently includes the real one, which I think makes the theft appear more within the realms of possibility.

One of my earliest memories of something in the newspapers was, as a teenager, finding out a picture in The Guardian was of any entirely different conflict, more than a decade earlier, albeit in the same country. The media did not really care much about accuracy then, and its even worse now.

This is more and more a problem, not just with images. Even most of the higher quality (better researched) Youtube channels are fast and loose about using irrelevant stock footage to go along with their narration. Of course the channels with AI voice-over are universally terrible at this. I know a lot of this is content creators have limited access to good visual content. A naval historiographer I follow will show, for instance, ship photos or archival video that is not exactly the ship or event he is describing. He's probably a solo creator and I'm sure constrained by archival access, and frankly time.

One notable exception I have found is this channel https://www.youtube.com/@wildwestfaces The narration is often of first person memoirs of historic events and the images are relevant and sync well with the narration.

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